Page 163 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

European Accounts of Muscat 153
were many tribesmen from Jabas Akhdar wearing kilts and
white head-dresses and carrying javelins. All the Muscatis
smoked pipes and the rich merchants had their houses
decorated in Persian style. There were two or four mosques
but these were mainly used by Najdis as Ibadhis rarely pray.
He visited Besheyr where whitish pottery was made.
1868 GERMAIN, A., ‘Quelques mots sur l’Oman at lc Sultan de
Maskatc’, Bull. Soc. Gcog., Paris, XVI, 1868, 339-64. There
are two resident Europeans, the British Consul and the
representative of British India Steamships. The population
has sunk from 60,000 forty years ago to 30,000 now with
4,000 more living outside. The women outnumber men by
four to one. The city is half in ruins and some of the streets
arc impassable because of the rubble. People relieve them­
selves against the wall of the Sultan’s palace. The forts have
never been repaired and guns without carriages lie around.
There are four gates guarded by sleepy Beduins. The smells
cause a European real suffering, particularly when they are
increased by those from the Indian shops. The Omanis are
more superstitious than other Arabs and have more jinnis:
this may be the result of African influences. They are lazy and
ignorant but tolerant, kind and hospitable: the khanjar is only
for show. He saw 200 sardines being sold for a halfpenny.
Omani coffee is inferior to that of Yemen and the local sugar
cane is poor but cotton might do well. There may be copper
and lead in the mountains and sulphur has been found at
Bahilah.
1869 STEWART, Col. Charles Edward, Through Persia in
Disguise, London, 1911, 118. Visited in December. Muscat is
the main market for Bahreini pearls.
1870 LATHAM, G., India to England, Calcutta, 1870. Muscat is
mentioned briefly as the seat of the Imam of Western (sic)
Arabia and the country of the Wahhabis.
1873 COLOMB, Admiral Philip Howard, R.N., Slave catching in
the Indian Ocean, London, 1873, 112-32. He visited while
Muscat was under the rule of Azan b. Qays, whose white flag
was flying everywhere. His interpreter told him that Azan was
‘plenty soldier—plenty mosque. Big padre, plenty Bible—he
look out for God. Bazaar nobody smoke. Azan put him in
chokee. Night smoke yes in house... no wear him silk—no
drink him grog.’ Muscat is ‘an inlet in a group of red cinders’.
The author saw shaykhly prisoners in the fort, sitting in
separate parts of the half-ruinous building, on heaps of
crumbling mortar, with a pig of ballast about two feet long in
front of them with their ankles shackled to each end. Slaves
are worth 20% more in Muscat than in Zanzibar and 50%
more in Basra or Bushire. The average is $10-40 but the best